Photo provided by Irwin Thompson/dallasnews.com -- A New Orleanian peers out of the window as a rescue boat passes near Claiborne Avenue on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005.

Photo provided by Irwin Thompson/dallasnews.com -- Volunteer Paul Mire of Destrehan drives his boat out after rescuing a resident from the flooded Corpus Christi School in the 7th Ward on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. Mire was helping a search-and-rescue outfit from Baton Rouge try and locate people trapped by floodwater.

FILE - In a Aug. 30, 2005 file photo, rescue personnel search from victims as they traverse the New Orleans 8th Ward in the flooded city of New Orleans after the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. Cities like Tampa, Houston, Jacksonville and Daytona Beach historically get hit with major hurricanes every 20 to 40 years, according to meteorologists. But those same places have now gone at least 70 years, sometimes more than a century, without getting smacked by those monster storms, according to data analyses by an MIT hurricane professor and The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)

Staff Photo By Arthur D. Lauck Grace White a 73 year old who has a history of strokes is helped out og the third floor through a hole cut in the roof Tuesday August 30, 2005 at her home in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans La. Working to get her to a rescue boat are Oscar Dupre, bottom left, Alfred Green , top left, Cerra Washington, top right, and Brandon Douglas. The group of family and friends rode out Hurricane Katrina at the home.

Advocate file photo by Mark Saltz -- St. Tammany firefighter Mark Frosch, left, and Joe Impastato, right, rescue a blind mother and son from their home on Lake Road on August 29, 2005, which was flooded due to Hurricane Katrina.

Photo provided by Irwin Thompson/dallasnews.com -- A New Orleanian peers out of the window as a rescue boat passes near Claiborne Avenue on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005.

Photo provided by Irwin Thompson/dallasnews.com -- Volunteer Paul Mire of Destrehan drives his boat out after rescuing a resident from the flooded Corpus Christi School in the 7th Ward on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. Mire was helping a search-and-rescue outfit from Baton Rouge try and locate people trapped by floodwater.

FILE - In a Aug. 30, 2005 file photo, rescue personnel search from victims as they traverse the New Orleans 8th Ward in the flooded city of New Orleans after the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. Cities like Tampa, Houston, Jacksonville and Daytona Beach historically get hit with major hurricanes every 20 to 40 years, according to meteorologists. But those same places have now gone at least 70 years, sometimes more than a century, without getting smacked by those monster storms, according to data analyses by an MIT hurricane professor and The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)

Staff Photo By Arthur D. Lauck Grace White a 73 year old who has a history of strokes is helped out og the third floor through a hole cut in the roof Tuesday August 30, 2005 at her home in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans La. Working to get her to a rescue boat are Oscar Dupre, bottom left, Alfred Green , top left, Cerra Washington, top right, and Brandon Douglas. The group of family and friends rode out Hurricane Katrina at the home.

Advocate file photo by Mark Saltz -- St. Tammany firefighter Mark Frosch, left, and Joe Impastato, right, rescue a blind mother and son from their home on Lake Road on August 29, 2005, which was flooded due to Hurricane Katrina.

"That's why I find myself praying for a storm. OK, a figurative storm, something that will prompt a rebirth in Chicago. I can relate, metaphorically, to the residents of New Orleans climbing onto their rooftops and begging for help and waving their arms and lurching toward rescue helicopters," she writes.

New Orleans and the Gulf South will commemorate the 10th anniversary of Katrina on Aug. 28.